Crazy Legs

Apparently that’s what it’s called when you can’t control your legs & start tripping over them at the end of a marathon.

It was also the cause of concern during the middle of last week. On Tuesday, I did 4×12 minutes at tempo pace. It felt terrible from the beginning (after the 1st one I told Brenden, my running partner, that I wasn’t so sure about this workout… makes for a LOOONG workout), so I was glad I had someone running them with me to help get me through. On the 3rd repeat, my quad sort of gave out & I nearly tripped over myself. My quads have been full of lactate lately, and I think the reason I was having a hard time controlling them during this workout was because of the lactate, or genereal fatigue. And also because 4×12 minutes is also a lot of work to do at 6 min/mile pace :).

Tuesday night the inside of my knee began to hurt. More of a pulling sensation than anything, but it wasn’t anything I had ever felt before. I was honestly a little scared. Was it because my shoes were worn out? I checked – YEP, way overdue for a new pair. I had worn through all of the black rubber sole on the outsides of both heels. Note to self: that’s stupid. Check my shoes more often.

Wednesday walking around work, I felt that pulling sensation all day. I tried to stretch my quad and knee area, and felt a general pulling sensation there. NOOOOO. I knew that this wasn’t a good feeling, and was even more scared when my noon-time run on Thursday had two stops during it to stretch the quad/knee. This can’t be happening, I thought to myself!

Thursday late day I headed to “the miracle worker” (aka Jim Patterson, my chiropractor). He did some quick tests, and found that the quad right above the inside of the knee was completely knotted up. He did some deep tissue massage and moved the joint around a lot. Not the most comfortable thing in the world, but he reminds me to close my eyes and let the pain escape. That actually works, believe it or not.

Thursday’s evening run, after the chiro visit, of 10 miles went GREAT. Seriously. No pain, no pulling sensation on the joint. Really?!? Jim is THAT good :).

Since then I’ve made sure to massage that quad, roll out the legs more often, and in general, just make sure to take inventory of my body & how it’s feeling after every run. Any pain? Any aches? What else can I be doing to make sure I stay healthy?

So, a little bit of a scare, but I’m on the road again. This week is my last big mileage week (low 90s), and then there are just FIVE more weeks until the marathon. WOW!! Let’s hope I can remain healthy for all of them :).